WIN10X WAS TO BE, essentially, Windows Lite. It was a cut-down, modular version intended for more limited hardware platforms, where Windows’ increasingly bulky footprint would overwhelm the hardware. Basically, a rival for Chrome OS, which powers all those Chromebooks that cut into Microsoft’s share of the laptop market. Win10X was first in revealed in 2019, and Microsoft teased us with the Surface Neo Duo and dual-screen Surface Neo, which required Win10X to work— neither arrived. Eventually the Surface Duo emerged, but Android-powered, and poorly promoted. Then Win10X was “refocused” to x86 hardware, ditching the idea of using sandbox containers to run other platforms. The market has swung to ARM-based designs more markedly since then. It also became clear that stripping Windows down to run on small devices removes much of what makes Windows so good in the first place.